'Cats top Hornets for soccer playoff bye

Wind on their side, G-P boys earn No. 1 seed from 30-4A

With a head-to-head home victory already in hand this season, Flour Bluff felt it had rival Gregory-Portland right where it wanted coming into Monday night's District 30-4A boys soccer playoff showdown at Hornet Stadium.

&quot;Our players were actually happy that we lost the coin flip, because they wanted to play Flour Bluff here again,&quot; said G-P coach Craig Johnson, whose team fell in the area playoffs last season. &quot;We felt like we had some unfinished business to take care of on this field tonight.&quot;

The co-champion Hornets (19-7) settle for second place. They'll play a Class 4A bi-district playoff match against either Medina Valley or Pleasanton Thursday in Beeville at a time to be determined.

&quot;Last time we used the wind to our advantage against them, but we just couldn't get anything going tonight,&quot; said Flour Bluff coach Bob Chapman, whose team reached the Region IV-4A quarterfinals last season. &quot;And when we did get some opportunities, we didn't capitalize.&quot;

G-P and Flour Bluff tied for the district title this season with 15-1 district marks and split their district matches. The Hornets defeated the Wildcats for the first time in four years this season at Hornet Stadium, 3-2, while G-P won the previous district meeting between the teams in Portland, 1-0.

The Wildcats -- who were also the last ones to beat Flour Bluff -- struck first nearly 21 minutes into Monday's match when Jheison Castellanos lined a perfectly timed shot into the back of the net after receiving a nice cross pass from teammate Tony Garcia to give G-P a 1-0 lead.

The Wildcats scored again a little more than 10 minutes later, as Johnny Leiva put in a sliding header (off an assist from teammate Chris Groucher) to push G-P's lead to 2-0.

A penalty in the box on the Wildcats gave Flour Bluff a penalty kick late in the first half. The Hornets actually had two shots at it, as Flour Bluff got another attempt when G-P was called for encroachment. Richard then went strong to his right to deflect Cory Foust's second penalty attempt and deny the Hornets again.

&quot;That save really sparked us, and it was a huge momentum (shift) for us in the match,&quot; Johnson said of Richard's key stop.

Richard had four saves in the match, including a key fingertip deflection of Travis Mende's breakaway attempt for Flour Bluff nearly midway through the first half.

Hornets goalie Patrick Kasperitis, suited out in all green for St. Patrick's Day, was just as stingy, as he made a match-high eight saves.

&quot;Patrick did it for us again -- he kept us in the match,&quot; Chapman said.